A minor film actor has been found guilty in a rape-torture case that occurred over twenty years ago, as police received his DNA from a later crime that linked him to the earlier one, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.
J.H.S. received mild celebrity status by playing an evil henchman in an "Austin Powers" film in 1997. The crime he has been found guilty of occurred seven years before, in 1990.
On Christmas Eve 1990 J.H.S. allegedly took part in the gang rape and torture of a woman, known Jane Doe for the trial, after she had returned from a walking tour to view holiday light displays.
J.H.S., 40, of Orange County, has received a lifetime prison sentence, without the possibility of parole, for felony torture. The original charges – made three years ago and subject to a statute of limitations – were for a large number of
sex crimes.
Prosecutors won a conviction on torture on August 25.
Prosecutors suggested that the woman, returning from seeing Christmas lights, was stopped by J.H.S. when he queried her for directions. He was then joined by another man, dragged her into their waiting car, forcibly put in the back seat and took her to an unknown destination to brutally victimize her.
It would later come to light that she was taken to an area in Huntington Beach.
Under the threat of death, J.H.S. pistol-whipped, raped, sodomized and then forced the woman to perform oral copulation. The other man, S.L.G., 40, allegedly raped her as well.
Doe pleaded for her life – while J.H.S. allegedly took the bullets from his gun and counted them in front of her – before being allowed to leave. Naked, with her pants used as a blindfold over her eyes, she found her way to a private home in the Huntington Beach neighborhood.
Homeowners telephoned the police for the victim.
After the physical evidence was gathered, police were unable to close the case. Then, in May of 2008, J.H.S. was forced to give a DNA sample after a conviction of felony vandalism.
It was that DNA sample that police were able to use to link J.H.S. to the cold 1990 case.
S.L.G. was sentenced to 17 years and four months in state prison after being found guilty for kidnapping, sodomy, rape, forcible oral copulation and forcible rape – with a sentencing enhancement for committing rape while armed with a firearm.
Jane Doe told the judge, "I feel debilitating fear come over me and am convinced a hand is coming from behind again. My emotional scars are intense. My 20s were stripped from my life as I relearned how to walk, see, hear and cope with the outside world again. (J.H.S.) not only cost me my job at my salon but also my college savings ... not to mention the impact it's made on celebrating Christmas year after year."
Contact a criminal defense attorneyfor the experience you need to best handle your case, and to answer questions about the use of DNA as evidence and any statue of limitations.
